The Solo Mockingjay
by XxWonderStruckTSxX
Summary: Katniss finds someone hiding in the depths of Snow's mansion. With the help of this... someone, she is forced to mentor a guy that she has known all her life in the 75th annual Hunger Games. The rebellion is sturring and they want Katniss' help. Will go through part of book 1, and all of 2 and 3.
1. The Victor

**A/N: This is my first fanfiction, so I hope you enjoy:) **

"The winner of the 74th annual Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen from district 12!" Claudius Templesmith's voice boomed through the arena. I look up and see a hovercraft.

They let down a rope ladder; I grab it and freeze in place. I'm being lifted up to the hovercraft and once onboard, I instantly black out. I woke up and I was back in my room

in the training center. I walk over to the bathroom to wash my face. When I look in the mirror you could not tell at all that I was just in an arena fighting for my life. I was

glowing and the cut on my head was nothing but a small thin line. But the biggest change is when I turn the water on, I could hear out of my left ear. I guess the capitol

surgeons fixed it, along with every other scar. My skin looks flawless. I walk to the dining room to find Cinna, Portia, Haymitch and Effie in there eating. When they see me they

all get up and hug me. "Nice job Sweetheart." Haymitch says with a grin on his face.

"Thanks, but…" a tear rolls down my cheek. Effie hands me and pink handkerchief and I wipe my cheeks.

"Katniss, he wanted you to win. Before the rule change that was his whole strategy, was to have you win. That's the reason why he teamed up with the careers. To try to lead

them away from you." Haymitch tells me. This news cheers me up a little. But he had a family, his brothers and dad loved him. How can I go back. Peeta died and

it was my fault. I should've made him run away with me when he told me to run away. He stayed back to fight Cato, and died. I feel more tears run down my cheeks as I think

of Peeta sacrificing his life to save mine. Multiple times.

"Come on Katniss. Eat, then you have to go get prepped for your interview later." Cinna says and gives me another hug. I sit down and eat, but not too much because too much

Capitol food is not good. My prep team preps me. They do my nails and makeup and put my hair in ringlets down my back. Cinna comes in with a light yellow dress and

flats with primroses on them the same color. He puts it on me and it falls just below my knees. But something on it feels weird.

"Padding?" I ask him.

"Yeah, it was that or surgery." He replies.

"Oh, I like the idea of padding more."

"I thought you would" He says with a smile and puts the finishing touches on my outfit, including my mockingjay pin. We walk to the stage; I look out and see Caesar in the

same outfit he wore for the other interview. "Good luck out there, girl on fire." Cinna tells me and goes to take his seat in the audience.

"Welcome with me, this year's victor. Katniss Everdeen, the girl on fire from district 12!" Caesar says and I find myself walking onto the stage. I smile at the crowd and at Caesar

then sit down. "So Katniss, you were amazing out there in the arena!" He turns to the crowd, "What do you guys think, wasn't she amazing?" The crowd cheers very loudly.

"Thank you." I smile at them.

"So, Katniss. I'm very sorry about your loss of Peeta Mellark." I fight the tears that are dying to escape my eyes.

"I'm going to miss him, a lot. I just wish I would I could thank him. Without him, I probably wouldn't be here right now. He told me to run away because Cato was coming and he

was furious at me. I also wish that I would've made Peeta run away from Cato with me. But because of the tracker jacker venom, I just couldn't think right and now…" I look at

Cinna. "Now I just wish that I didn't drop that tracker jacker nest, and then maybe Peeta could be sitting here with me right now." Tears start to roll down my cheeks and I don't

stop them.

"So Katniss, you get to go see your little sister soon." I never thought of that! I get to go back to my mother and Prim. We'll live in the victors village and be neighbors with

Haymitch. We'll have all the money and food we need.

"Yes, I do."

"You told her you would win for her, correct?" he asks.

"Yes, when she visited me after the reaping." I answer him.

"Well, congratulations. You won for her."

"I didn't only win for her; I also won for Rue and Peeta." I reply. Then President Snow walks onto the stage with a gold crown in his hand. He motions for me to stand up, I do.

"Congratulations, my dear. You have definitely earned this. You fought long and hard in the arena and lost some people you care about. Good job." With that he places the crown

on my head and steps aside.

"Give it up one more time for Katniss Everdeen, the girl on fire and the victor of the 74th annual Hunger Games!" Caesar says and the crowd roars with applause.

President Snow walks off the stage and I am guided back to the training center and am immediately met by Effie.

"That was lovely, Katniss!" She squeals in her capitol accent.

"Could've used less water works, but it was alright." Haymitch says and takes another drink of whatever is in his hand.

"Thanks I guess. When will we be going back to district 12? I just want to get back to Prim." I ask.

"We will be leaving tonight at 7 o'clock on the dot. So be ready!" Effie says then walks away.

"I just can't stand being in this pent house anymore. Peeta used to stay here and all those empty rooms below us where the tributes used to stay. It's just too depressing."

"Good luck in the next years then Sweetheart. You have to come back every year to mentor." Haymitch says.

"Great." I say then go to my room. If I don't want to be here, I'll just go to sleep. But that was a huge mistake. What came to me as I slept was a nightmare, with the one and

only Peeta Mellark in it. In my dream I was up in the trees and when I look down, I see a fight going on. It's Cato, Glimmer, Clove and Marvel against Peeta and Rue. I

try to jump down to help them. But I can't, I can't even move to shoot an arrow. It was like what freezes you on the hovercraft. I try to yell their names. But I can't,

I'm like an avox. I still have my tongue though, but I am mute.

What I see next is horrible. Peeta and Rue don't have a chance at all. Peeta is on the ground because Clove punched him in the stomach and knocked the wind out of him.

Poor little Rue is getting tied up to a tree by Glimmer. What happened next was fast. Cato he, he… beheads Peeta. Marvel sends a spear through Rue's head. Once the two

cannons went off I was unfrozen. I shook the tree once I was able to move. The careers hear this and look up. I'm next, I know it. I jump out of the tree and start to

run as fast as I can. But when I look back to see how far away the careers are, I trip on a tree root. And just as one of Clove's knifes was about to pierce through my

heart. I woke up.

I'm covered in sweat and the covers are thrown off of the bed and onto a pile on the floor. I take a cold shower to help wake me up from my horrible nightmare. I throw on a

forest green shirt and dark jeans. I look at the clock by my bed. 6:45. Just in time to go get on the train without Effie screaming at me about how important it is to be

punctual. I walk to the train station with some peace keepers. Once on the train I go to the dining car because I haven't eaten anything for almost 7 hours. They serve me lamb

stew because after they heard me say I like it to Caesar during my first interview they make it a lot now.

"Hey Sweetheart." Haymitch goes straight to the alcohol table.

"Hey, Haymitch."

"You seem kind of… lonely."

"More like still in shock. Or maybe it's because of this nightmare I had about 30 minutes ago." I tell him.

"I hear ya." He takes a drink.

"You do?" I ask curiously.

"Yep. Why do you think I drink? Sleep during the day? Sleep with a knife?"

"The games."

"Bingo. You remember Annie Cresta?"

"Yeah, she's a victor from district 4."

"She went mad after her games. They can drive people insane and Annie's an example. Some victors drink away the pain, like me. Some take morphling, which is a drug in the

capitol. Some are famous, like Finnick Odair. Others unfortunately go mad, like Annie." Haymitch says.

"Will I go mad?" I ask thinking of poor Annie, who I do remember.

"You could. You won't if you think of something or someone to keep you sane. I heard Finnick Odair keeps Annie somewhat sane when they're together." He fiddles with the

bottle of murky, clear liquid in his hands.

"Like Prim? Or Gale?"

"Yes, but remember sweetheart. You need to play up the, 'I'm so sad! The love of my life is dead and I won't love another man in my life' thing." Haymitch says and I realize

something huge. I can never have a love life with Gale. If I do, then the Capitol will wonder if my love with Peeta was even real. I'm supposed to be devastated that Peeta died. I

am, a lot. But I never realized that I'd have to not have a love life with Gale. We'll always be hunting partners and best friends, nothing more, nothing less.

"I'm really sad that Peeta died. Sometimes I wish he was the one here and not me. But what about Gale?"

"Oh, he's your cousin now." Haymitch informs me.

"What do you mean?" I ask confused. How could Gale be my cousin, we look similar. But we're not related.

"They interviewed your family once you got in the last 8. To keep on the star-crossed lovers act, Gale is now your cousin." Haymitch keeps calling it an act. This I did not like at

all.

"Haymitch, it wasn't just an act. I do have feelings for Peeta. I feel sorry, dread, respect and maybe I do love him a little. I have been thinking about him

since we were little, same as him for me. But I've been thinking about how he saved my families lives when we were younger and what do I do? I let him get killed by Cato! We

are the star-crossed lovers from District 12 and we always will be."

"Ok, Sweetheart. You are the star-crossed lovers. Just have fun telling hunter boy that." He swishes around

the drink in his bottle.

"Gale can deal with it. He knows I never loved him like I kind of love Peeta. I love Gale like a best friend, but with Peeta it was just different."

"Why are you telling me this? I think Effie would love to hear all about it, or your prep team." He takes a big drink and almost falls over. I go walk to the back of the train and sit

down on a window ledge and look out the window. Soon I'll be in District 12, what am I going to tell Gale?

**A/N: More reviews= more chapters! I have 3 more waiting to be uploaded if I get some reviews :)**


	2. Welcome Home

**Thank you so much to you that have reviewed, favorited and subscribed! It made my day :) **

**I forgot to say that I don't own The Hunger Games, it belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins :) Sorry Suzzy, not trying to steal it!**

The next day or so, I honestly don't know, went by really fast. I was space out in my own little world the whole time. I talk, but not much. I only start to talk when it was time to be prepped for my arrival in District 12. My prep team has just finished prepping me and Cinna walks in. He takes one look at me and says.

"Katniss, what's wrong?" I can't lie to Cinna, he knows me too well.

"I have no clue what I'm going to tell Gale about the star-crossed lovers." I sigh and slump my shoulders.

"Try. 'Gale… you're my best friend; you will and always will be. I pretended to be in love with Peeta at first to try to save our lives. Sadly that only worked out for me. But it wasn't an act in the end. I do have feelings for Peeta. I feel sorry, dread and most of all respect and maybe I do love him. But please don't get mad at me.'" Cinna suggests.

"Did you think of that on the top of your head?" I ask amazed that he thought of something so amazing for me to tell Gale.

"No, I saw you moping around, thought this was why and decided to help." He smiles at me waiting for me to reply.

"Thank you so much, Cinna. You've always been there to help me." I hug him, now very grateful to have gotten him as my stylist.

"Like I told you before, I'm here to help you make an impression. Now speaking of that, would you like to know what you'll be wearing?" I nod. Cinna pulls out a black strapless dress. The torso was straight with a small line of silver glitter lining the top. The bottom was ruffled layers. Each layer had a line of glitter on the bottom. He put it on me and it falls just above my knees. He has me slip on black flats that had black glitter on them. He puts some makeup on my face and walks me over to a mirror.

"What comes after fire?"

"Smoke." I say a smile a little. Cinna fixes my hair a little, which is like my interview from a couple days ago, ringlets down my back. I can feel the train slowing down and I look out the window. District 12.

"Here's your stop, girl on fire. Good luck." He kisses my cheek.

"Will I see you again?" I ask

"Of course. Later tonight at the dinner, on the victory tour and when you go back to the capitol to mentor." He answers.

"Okay, thanks for everything Cinna."

"No problem, see you later." He walks out the door. I'm not alone long though.

"Katniss!" Effie screeches. She comes in my room and grabs my arm. "Come on, dear. We'll be stopping in a few minutes and we need you to be by the door." She leads me to the door that will open right when the train stops. A voice comes on and says

"We will be arriving in District 12 in 3, 2, and 1." The doors open and I am overwhelmed by camera flashes and crowds. Effie grabs my arm and leads me out of the train. I put on my fake smile and wave at the crowds. Then I see Prim, she's on top of Gale's shoulders and they both have big smiles on their faces and are clapping for me. I smile a real smile at them. Gale grins back at me. Maybe he isn't mad at me.

"Come on Katniss! We need to get to the Justice building." Effie guides me over to the Justice building. I sit down on the stage next to Effie. Cinna comes and sits next to me.

"You came Cinna?" I say confused why he's here. I thought he wouldn't come till the dinner later tonight.

"Of course, the stylist has to be presented along with the victor. Especially the girl on fire's stylist." He winks at me.

"I'm glad you're here, I can't survive being on stages without you." Then Mayor Undersee walks up on the stage and towards the microphone set up in the middle of the stage.

"Welcome home, Katniss Everdeen!" He says into the Mic. The crowd claps, it's loud, but definitely not as loud as at the Capitol.

"We're all very glad to see you back in one piece." He says. Effie hands me a microphone so I can reply.

"Thank you, I am too." I reply to him.

"Looks like the Capitol rubbed off on you quit a bit, aye?" He says. The crowd laughs at this because they're all so used to seeing me the opposite as I look right now.

"Yeah, but don't worry. Soon I'll be as much as my old self as I can." I find Gale in the crowd with my mother and Prim and he looks concerned as I say the last part.

"Why do you say that?" Mayor Undersee asked.

I thought about my answer, I didn't really want to tell them details about what happened in the games, I just couldn't. "I have really bad nightmares now." I come up with an answer.

"I'm sorry to hear that." He says. After trying to think of an answer to his last question, I just can't handle this anymore. I start to cry. I put my elbows on my knees and my face in my hands and just started to cry. Next thing I know Gale is looking up at me.

"Katniss, are you okay?" He asks. I can see the concern in his eyes. He clearly isn't mad about the whole Peeta thing. I ignore him and look up at Cinna.

"Can we just stop this right now? Take me back to where ever you were going to when it was over?" I ask.

"Yeah, and also you can't have your picture taken. Your mascara is running."

"See you later, Gale." I stand up with Cinna and we walk to Mayor Undersee's house where the dinner will be held.

"Katniss, what's wrong?" Cinna turns me so I'm looking him in the eyes. He wipes the mascara off my cheeks.

"When he asked me why I'll never be the same way I was before and I was thinking of an answer, I replayed the whole games in my head. That's me real answer. I'll never be the same because of this whole experience." More tears run down my cheeks and I wipe them off with my hands.

"Katniss, you'll never have to go back in there. Never again. That was a one-time thing and you got out of it. There's nothing to worry about. You'll never be reaped and the capitol wouldn't dare reap Prim. You and your family are safe and sound. You're rich and you'll be well fed. This experience has made a huge difference for your families lives, a good difference." Cinna tries to convince me.

"All those things are good. But I miss Peeta!" I'm really crying now. "I only spent a few days with him, but I miss him a lot! We got to know each other so well and now he's dead." I sit down on the floor and put by forehead on my knees and just cry. I hear Cinna whispering to someone but I don't look up to see who it is. About 15 minutes later I hear someone walk into the room. I know it's not Cinna because he told me about 5 minutes ago that he had to go see to my evening outfit.

"Hey, Katniss." I don't recognize the voice so I look up to see Peeta's brother Wyatt.

"Hi, Wyatt." I say in a small voice.

"I'm sad about it too." Oh great, that helps. I thought. "When I saw him after the reaping, he told me to not expect him to come back and that no matter what he would make sure you came back alive."

"Well, he achieved his goal."

"Yeah. But Katniss, he wasn't kidding in his interview. He has had a crush on you forever." Wyatt informs me.

"I have a lot of different feelings for him, including love. But I just wish he would've run away from Cato with me and not try to fight him."

"Katniss, that wasn't your fault. You and Peeta weren't thinking straight because of the tracker jacker venom."

"That's true, but I miss him a lot still. It's just going to be so weird. And when I have to go back to the Capitol it's going to suck. I couldn't even handle being in our pent house without him."

"Katniss, I'm so sorry. You're taking the blow to him being gone harder than anyone else."

"We're you two close?" I ask him

"No, not really. No one in our family is really close." I look down at my hands and thought of how my family would be if no one was close. That would be horrible, no wonder Peeta wanted to die for me.

"Katniss?" I hear Effie say from down the hall.

"I better get going. Bye Katniss, good luck." He says and gets up. He starts walking away and turns around and says in a capitol accent, "And may the odds be ever in your favor!" I smile at him. He turns back around and leaves. Then Effie walks up to me.

"Katniss, come on. We need to get you changed and to the victors village!" I follow Effie into a room and change into jeans, an orange t-shirt and to my dismay, the same jacket I wore in the games. Great, that's just what I need.

Effie guides me to the victor's village. My mother and Prim were waiting outside our house for me. It was tradition that the victor got to step into their new house first. Even the movers haven't gone in yet.

"Prim!" I run to her and hug her tightly.

"Katniss! You won!" she says when I put her down.

"Yep, I won for you, Peeta and Rue." I walk over to my mom and give her a hug.

"Good job, Katniss." She says.

"Thanks mom." I grabbed Prim's hand. "Let's go see our new house." We walk inside and find out that it's a lot bigger than I thought it would be. About four times the size of our old house.

"Thanks Katniss. For everything. For volunteering for me and for winning it." Prim tells me and give me another big hug.

"Hey, Catnip. Welcome home!" Gale comes in my house.

"Hey Gale."

"Nice house."

"Thanks. So… you're not mad about, me and Peeta?" I ask nervously.

"Bread boy? No, I understand that you had to pull that star-crossed lovers act to fool the Capitol. I actually think it's funny that they fell for it." I look into his eyes.

"Gale, that wasn't an act." I remember exactly what Cinna said. "Gale… you're my best friend; you will and always will be. I pretended to be in love with Peeta at first to try to save our lives. Sadly that only worked out for me. But it wasn't an act in the end. I do have feelings for Peeta. I feel sorry, dread and most of all respect and maybe I do love him. But please don't get mad at me."

"Katniss, I'm not mad at you. I totally understand."

"Really? I thought you would get mad at me." I say surprised.

"I can't get mad at you. Not after what you just went through."

"Thanks Gale." I smile at him and he smiles back.

* * *

**Please read! Super important!**

**Don't forget to review :) It takes less than a minute and everyone makes me so happy :) You have no idea! I have two more chapters written and ready to be uploaded, I'll only upload more if people like this story, if people don't, then I have another story that I have to type, I wrote it so it's not on my computer.**

**REVIEWS = MORE CHAPTERS!**

**Love, **

** XxWonderStruckTSxX**

**PS: MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR ;)**


	3. District 11

**A/N: Thanks again to those of you who have reviewed! Remember, more reviews mean more chapters! I got informed that I would switch from present to past tense a lot, I fixed that in all of my chapters.**

The next couple of months went by really fast. I still have nightmares and wake up screaming every night. Gale and I go hunting every Sunday, even though I don't have to. But Gale refuses to take money from me. During the day I just walk around town, talk to some people and just try to clear my mind of the nightmare that visit me during the night. My life is pretty boring, until the victory tour came.

The day I have to leave, I go for a walk in the woods. I walk all the way to the lake that my father had taught me how to swim in. I pick some katniss and started to twirl it around in my fingers. I take a deep breath in. After what happened when I got back to district 12, I'm not looking forward to this at all.

I shoot a couple squirrels; I'll give them to Gale on my way back to the Victors Village. After just sitting on a rock for a while, I get up, sling my game bag over my shoulder and head back to the seam.

When I get to Gale's house he isn't there, just Hazel, his brothers and Posey. Gale must be at the mines.

"Hi, Hazel." I say as she opens the door.

"Hello, Katniss."

"I brought you a few squirrels. It's not much but when I was out there, I was trying to clear my mind of somethings."

"It's alright. Come in. It's so cold outside." She opens the door wider and I walk inside.

"When do you leave for the victory tour?" Hazel asks me.

"I leave in a few hours, so I really should be going home to get prepped."

"Okay. Have a nice time!"

"Thank you. Can you tell Gale I say bye? I don't think I'll see him before I leave."

"Yes, of course. Bye Katniss!" She says and I walk out the door and head to the victors village. I'm not even 20 feet away from my front door and I hear Effie screeching.

"Katniss!" She comes out of my house and pulls me inside. "Where have you been? Today is a big, big, big day and we cannot be late. We have to be in District 11 at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning! Go upstairs, your prep team is already up there and Cinna will be here soon!" I go upstairs and am greeted by my prep team. Since it's really cold outside and I'll be covered up. Cinna has given them instructions to only do my nails, hair and makeup. When it's time to do my hair, my mother comes in.

"Cinna told me to show you how I did Katniss' hair on the reaping day." She does my hair in the braided up-do and my prep team watches carefully. They each get a turn to try the hairstyle then my mother and prep team leave and Cinna comes in.

"How's my favorite victor?" He asks.

"I've been better. I still get nightmares every night." I answer him.

"Well let's get you dressed and headed to District 11." I'm wearing dark jeans, black warm boots, a navy blue long sleeve shirt and a silver and black winter coat. Cinna puts something on my ears. Earmuffs, I hate earmuffs. He finishes by putting my mockingjay pin on my coat.

"Okay, let's go to the train station before Effie starts to freak out again." He says and we go down stairs.

"Good idea." We walk to the train station. I say good bye to my mother and Prim and get onto the train. Good by District 12, hello District 11.

I go to my room and take my coat and earmuffs off and change into a short sleeve light green shirt. I go walk to the dining car and start to eat. I haven't eaten all day. Haymitch comes in, grabs a bottle of white liquor and sits down.

"How are the nightmares, Sweetheart?" He asks.

"Horrible. They just remind me over and over again that Peeta's dead." I reply. He takes a big drink then answers me.

"Yeah, they do that. Mine always remind me of dead tributes too. But then I drink and I can't remember hardly anything." I look outside the window and see that it already looks sunny and we've only been moving for about 20 minutes.

"What's District 11 like?" I ask.

"Big, always sunny, people that live there are always working, even the little ones."

"Rue told me a little about it. When it was time to stop working, she would whistle, and the mockingjays would copy her and everyone would now it's time to stop." I tell him.

"What would she whistle?" He asks me stupidly, which I guess isn't that stupid for a drunk.

"You don't remember from in the arena?" I whistle Rue's four-note tune.

"Oh yeah, that thing." He answers. He gets up and walks back to his room. To vomit is my guess. When I was finish eating I watch some of the past games; curious what the other victors are like since the only one I know is an annoying drunk.

About 2 hours after I start to watch, I fall asleep. I had yet another nightmare. This one was different than all the others I've had. In all the others I've had, the careers, manly Cato, kill Peeta in many different ways. But in this one, I'm the one that kills him.

When I killed him, I didn't do it on purpose. It was an accident. It's when the careers chased me up into a tree, the night before I dropped the tracker jacker nest that probably made Peeta die.

"I'm coming for you, girl on fire!" Cato yells up at me and tries to climb the tree with the sword in his hand. I'm up too high and when he tries to climb up high to get me, he falls and lands on his back with a thud.

"I'll get the brat myself." Glimmer snarls at the other careers and starts climbing up. She steps on a thin branch, it can't hold her weight and she falls to the ground.

"That's not going to work!" Glimmer grabs an arrow from the quiver, loads her bow and shoots at me. She misses.

"Why don't you throw the sword?" I yell down at them.

"Fine! I will!" Cato yells back at me. When I said that I intended on his sword getting stuck in the tree and I could grab it. That did not happen at all. The sword hit a branch and flew straight to the ground. I thought it was going to hit the ground, but it didn't. I heard a scream. I look down and see Peeta lying on the ground with a sword sticking out of his chest.

A cannon went off. The careers looked at me.

"Nice going 12! You killed lover boy!" Clove yells up at me. I did. I did kill Peeta. If it wasn't for me, Cato would've never thrown the sword up at me so it could bounce back and hit Peeta.

"Oh well, he did what we needed him for. To find her." Marvel says to the other careers.

"True, now we just wait for her to come down or die of thirst of hunger." Cato says. I woke up to someone shaking me.

"Wow, Sweetheart. You weren't kidding. Your nightmares are getting bad." Haymitch says.

"Yeah, I know."

"Well come on, don't you want to see District 11?" We go over to the window. District 11 is just as Haymitch said it was, big and sunny. I go get prepped. My hair is in the braided up-do my mom taught my prep team. I'm wearing a sunset orange dress that goes to the floor and orange flats. Effie brings me to the door.

"Arriving in District 11, in 3, 2 and 1." The voice over the intercom says. The doors open on 1. I'm guided to the run down justice building. They have a stage set up and I give a speech that was given to me by the capitol. I could also say something about the tributes that were killed. In this District, that was Rue and Thresh. Both helped me survive and win. When I tried writing a speech about them all that ended up on my paper was tears. When it came for me to tell a speech about them, it just came to me.

"Both Rue and Thresh helped me survive and win. I thank them a lot for that. I loved Rue like a little sister. Thresh I had a lot of respect for. The careers wanted him to ally with them but he wouldn't. He was by himself the whole time and made it far. I thank you for your children." I'm on the verge of crying, but for Octavia's sake. I don't cry. She did my makeup perfectly as always and I told her I wouldn't ruin it again by crying.

This is the same thing that happens in every district, but I never make another speech about the tributes. I never even knew most of their names, and I didn't know them. So it was just too hard to think of something to say. Something different happens when I was in District 5, Foxface's district.

**Thanks for reading! Remember to review! It makes my day :)**


	4. Suicide?

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews :) **

**It's sad, I don't own Hunger Games. Would be cool if I did though, then I would meet Josh Hutcherson!**

**CHAPTER 4: SUICIDE?:**

"So Katniss, what did you think of Jacqueline?" The interviewer asks me. Jacqueline? Who's that?

"Who's Jacqueline?" I ask him.

"I believe you called her Foxface." He tells me. So that's Foxface's name! Jacqueline.

"Oh! I thought she was a smart and sneaky opponent. It was really smart to hide out in the cornucopia before the feast." I answer his question.

"Have you heard of the Foxface theory that the districts have been talking about?" There's a Foxface theory? What?

"No I haven't, what is it?"

"Some people believe that she committed suicide. People of District 5 that knew her, say that she was really smart when it came to plants, so she should've known that was nightlock." I think about this before answering him.

"When we were in the training center she was at the edible plants station quite a bit, and she is very smart. She figured out the mines that the careers set around their food pyramid and hid in the cornucopia."

"So, do you think she committed suicide?"

"She is smart and she does know her plants, so she could've. But nightlock looks very similar to a nonpoisonous berry that I have eaten before. She could've gotten the two mixed up. So I honestly don't know… she might have and she might not have." I reply.

"Why do you think she would've committed suicide?" He asks.

"Foxface, I mean Jacqueline. Was a quiet, sneaky tribute."

"She was!" Someone yells out from the crowd.

"She just didn't seem like a violent person, maybe she didn't want to fight in the last two."

"Do you think that maybe she wanted someone else to win?" He asks me. Did Foxface really want me to win? She has an older and younger sister. Maybe she knows what it's like to have a younger sister you love and could connect to me with that.

"Maybe she did want me to win." I say.

"Katniss, someone wants to talk to you." Then a little girl with red hair and freckles walked onto the stage.

"Hi, my name's Lillian. I'm Jackie's little sister." My heart sank to the bottom of my stomach. Lillian's sister is dead.

"Hi Lillian." That's all I can say without crying.

"Katniss, I watched the District 12 reaping with Jackie, and when you volunteered for your sister Primrose, Jackie said, 'That girl is going to win, even if I have to commit suicide, that girl is getting out of the arena and back to her sister.' And that's what she did. "After that Lillian left the stage.

After that I go to Districts 4, 3, 2, and 1. Now I'm at the Capitol.

* * *

**Sorry, this one's shorter. I had writers block, I have a nice long chapter for you guys coming up next! Don't forget to review! **

**There's a pretty new review button down there... you should try it out ;)**


	5. Found in the Darkness

**A/N: two chapters in one day? You lucky people! I don't own Hunger Games!**

**Chapter 5: Found in the Darkness:**

"Oh Katniss! You are going to absolutely love the Capitol parties! They are the best!" Effie tells me while we are walking to President Snow's mansion, where the dinner will be held. We walk in and there is food everywhere. The Capitol has all this food and when people in other Districts are starving and dying of hunger they do nothing about it? I'm only angry for a little bit, then I start to go eat. I'm going to eat one bite of everything, I want to try everything. There are tables full of cakes, I wish Peeta was here to see all of this, he would've loved it. Effie makes me dance with a bunch of weird, colorful capitol men. Oh I hope I won't be like Finnick Odair because of her.

"Katniss, there is someone here that would like to have a dance with you!" Effie walks over to me with a large man. "This is Plutarch Heavensbee, the new Head Gamemaker." Great, because I love Gamemakers, the people that tried to kill me in the arena and think it's entertaining. He grabs my hand and places his other hand on my hip. This makes me feel uncomfortable. He senses this and holds me at arm's length. We dance and talk about the party and food.

"Ever since training, I avoid punch as much as possible." He says.

"What? Oh! You're the one that-." I laugh; he's the man that fell back in the punch bowl when I shot the arrow at the apple.

"Yes, that was me." He says and smiles. He pulls his hands away from me and we stop dancing.

"I have something to show you." Plutarch says and reaches to his pocket and pulls out a pocket watch and opens it, I see a clock. The light shifts and I see something on the clock face, my mockingjay. He snaps the lid closed.

"I have to leave now, Miss. Everdeen. The Gamemakers have a strategy meeting. It starts at midnight. Good bye." He kisses my hand and walks away. I go over to my prep team who is stuffing their faces with food.

"Katniss! You have to try this!" Venia says and hands me some odd looking Capitol food, it's stringy.

"It's called pasta." Octavia says.

"I would, but I can't eat another bite, I'm full." I tell them.

"Then here! Go in the bathroom and drink this!" Flavius hand me a tiny wineglass filled with clear liquid.

"What is it?" I say and go to take a small sip.

"No don't!" Shrieks Octavia.

"You'll get it all over the floor! You have to drink it in the bathroom!" says Venia.

"It will make me… vomit?" I ask.

"Of course, so you can eat more!" Octavia says. "I've been in there twice already. Everyone does it, that's how you have fun at a feast!"

People start to crowd over the tables I'm by, so I decide to go for a walk. I walk out of the ball room and down a big hallway. To my left and right there are pictures from past hunger games, victors, dead tributes, tributes hiding and being killed, how can someone have these pictures in their house? Then I remembered who's house I'm in.

To the right at the very end of the hallway there's a door that's slightly open. I open it a little more and go inside. The lighting is dim, but I can still see and stair case that leads down stairs. I go down them and once at the bottom, there's a large room that looks like a prison. I take a few steps forward and the sound echoes through the air. I hear shuffling in one of the cells, is someone being kept down in this horrible place? It's dark down here; the only light comes from the few light bulbs that are hanging from the ceiling on wires. It smells really bad down here, like death and waste. I walk over to where I heard the shuffling.

"Is someone there?" I ask into the darkness.

"Katniss?" I hear loud footsteps and then I see a familiar face in between two bars.

"Peeta?" I rush over to him and take his face in my hands. He looks really dirty. His blonde wavy hair is greasy and caked to his face with sweat. He looks much thinner than he did in the arena, much like how I looked when he threw me that bread. "How did you get down here? I thought you died!" Tears roll down my cheeks and he wipes them off with his hands.

"Cato didn't kill me; he gave me a really deep cut on my leg. After he ran away from me, peacekeepers came and grabbed me. They fixed my leg and gave me a fake one. Then they threw me in here before the games were over."

"Oh Peeta, I've missed you so much! I'm going to get you out of there." I look around the room.

"There are keys over there on the wall." Peeta points to the wall and there's a ring of keys hanging from a peg sticking out of the wall. I run over and grab them. I go over to Peeta's cell and try to unlock it; there are about ten keys on the ring. The lock opens on the fourth one.

"What's the plan?" Peeta asks me. "I'm pretty weak, I can't run that much."

"Okay, we'll… sneak you onto the train and into my room. Then I'll go get Haymitch and Effie and we can leave for District 12 before they notice you're gone." I tell him the plan.

"Okay, sounds good." We walk up the stairs and into the brightly light hallway. I squint my eyes; I'm not used to the bright light. Peeta and I walk down the hallway and go past the ballroom. I hear a voice.

"Octavia, have you seen Katniss?" Effie asks.

"About 20 minutes ago, then she walked away."

"We need to be leaving soon! I do not want to get off schedule and we have to be in District 12 tomorrow!" I hear Effie's heels walk away. Peeta and I continue walking. There's an exit about ten feet away to our left that leads directly to our train. I quietly open the door, step aside for Peeta to get out then quickly and silently shut the door behind us.

"Is that your train?" Peeta asks and points to a train.

"Yes, let's get you on it." We go on the train and I lead him to my room.

"Stay here; I'll go get Haymitch and Effie. Don't be loud, the attendants don't know you're here." I say and turn to leave.

"Katniss?"

"Yes, Peeta?"

"Come here." I walk over to him, he bends down and kisses my cheek.

"Thanks for rescuing me." He says.

"You're welcome." I smile at him. "The rescue is only half finished; we still need to get out of the Capitol. I'll be right back. I walk off the train and go straight to the ball room. If someone finds Peeta on the train, he'll be dead for sure. I have to hurry.

I find Effie right away, she's talking to Haymitch. Perfect, I'll kill two birds with one stone.

"There you are Katniss! We need to be leaving, we have to get to District 12." Effie says to me.

"Okay, let's go. It'll be good to go home."

"But I don't want to go home! There's so much liquor here!" wines Haymitch.

"Too bad Haymitch! Let's go!" I say and pull him out.

"Stop pulling sweetheart, I'll just go straight to the dining cart and get something to drink." I stop pulling Haymitch's arm and we follow Effie to the train. Yes, so close to getting Peeta safe. We step on the train and start moving right away.

An alarm starts going off in the whole Capitol.

"Oh my, why are they sounding the alarm? Something very bad must have happened." Effie says. Haymitch turns and looks at me.

"Sweetheart, what did you do?" I don't know what to tell them. I found Peeta locked up in Snow's dungeon! I don't say that, instead I lead them to my room and open the door. We look inside to see Peeta sitting on my bed.

"Peeta!" Effie screeches then faints, making her bright purple wig fall off her head. Peeta explains to Haymitch what happened before they locked him up.

"Then they locked me down there, I've been down for months." Peeta tells him.

Haymitch looks at both Peeta and I.

"You two, are in big trouble."

* * *

**You know what to do! Click that pretty new review button down there :) More revies makes me more motivated to write more!**


	6. Hiding

**Sorry for the wait! I've been busy with softball. PM me some ideas for future chapters so I can update faster! I don't own Hunger Games.**

**CHAPTER 6: HIDING:**

"Katniss, Peeta, we'll be pulling into District 12 any second now. Katniss you act natural. Peeta, just don't talk and follow us to the victors village. You'll be staying with Katniss, we don't want anyone but Prim and Mrs. Everdeen finding out you're alive yet." Peeta and I both nod. Peeta is dressed like someone from the Capitol, he has a bright orange wig on and a pink and orange tux. I'm wearing a strapless orange dress that touches the ground. The train slows down to a stop and the doors slide open.

For a second we are blinded by the light of the cameras. Then the light goes down and we can see. Haymitch grabs both our arms and pulls us out. Press asks me questions, like who is this mystery man I brought home with me? How did I like the other Districts? Things like that. I don't have time to answer them because Haymitch doesn't stop walking to the victor's village. We walk out of the train station, past the Justice building, past the market. When we walk past the bakery Peeta slows down a little, I look up at him and follow his gaze. He's looking at the bakery; probably wondering how his family took the news that he "died".

"Come on! Keep walking!" Haymitch urges us. We don't stop till we're at my house.

"Mom?" I say as I open the door.

"Katniss? Are you home honey?" I hear my mom say from upstairs.

"Yeah… can you come downstairs mom? I have something to show you." I hear my mom's footsteps as she walks down the stairs.

"What do you-? Oh! Who is this?" She motions to Peeta.

"Take off that ugly wig, boy." Haymitch tells Peeta. Peeta takes off the wig.

"Peeta?" My mom gasps. Peeta explains to my mom about what happened.

"So you've been locked up for six months?" She asks.

"Yes." Peeta answers.

"Did they feed you? Are you hungry?" My mom starts walking towards the kitchen.

"No, but thank you Mrs. Everdeen. They fed me a little each day, and I ate on the train."

"Mrs. Everdeen, we need to talk about something important. Panem thinks Peeta is dead, if people find out. Then the Capitol will find out. They know Peeta is gone, but they don't know who took him. He can't be seen in public, so he can't go home. He needs to stay here." Haymitch says to my mom.

"He can stay here; we have an extra bedroom he can have." Haymitch calls Cinna from the phone at my house, since he threw his out the window. He explains to Cinna the situation and asks him to bring Peeta some clothes since his mother most likely got rid of his after his fake death. I go to the dinner tonight and leave as soon as I can. I felt bad that Peeta had to miss it because he's supposed to be dead.

~X~

That night I go in to Peeta's room and sit on his bed next to him.

"How have you been these past months, Katniss?" He asks.

"I've been kind of lonely. I only see Gale on Sundays because he works in the mines now. I also have really bad nightmares about the games every night."

"I get those too; they're always about losing you."

"All of mine are about you dying. The worst nightmare I had is when I accidentally killed you."

"My worst nightmare I had was when Cato cut your head off." I grab Peeta's hand and look into his blue eyes.

"Those weren't real, and now we're both home and alive." I say.

"Yes, but broken." Peeta says.

"…Peeta, have you really had a crush on me forever?"

"Yes, ever since you sang in music class on the first day of school."

"I remember that. That was a really long time ago."

"I know. I love you Katniss, I always have and I always will."

"I love you too Peeta." He pulls me in for a hug and we fall asleep in each other's arms.

* * *

**Sorry for the shortness. SEND ME SOME IDEAS PEOPLE! I'll put them in if I like them! I promise! Don't forget to click that pretty new review button ;)**


	7. In the Woods

**I want to thank squirtlepokemon215 for this idea! This is supposed to be set around April. I do have a quote from Catching Fire; the quote is properly sited in quotation marks and cited correctly. I don't own Hunger Games or the quote in this chapter. **

**CHAPTER 7: IN THE WOODS:**

Peeta has been living in my house for a week now. No, he hasn't been living in my house, more like trapped. I get on my hunting boots and put on my father's old hunting jacket. I grab my game bag and reach the door.

"Katniss, can I go with you?" Peeta walks over to me.

"Are you sure? I mean, it's still illegal."

"Katniss, I'm dead." He makes air quotes when he says dead.

"Fine, dress in old clothes, it's dirty out there." Five minutes later Peeta and I walk out my door. So Peeta isn't recognized he is wearing a beanie pulled over his hair. We walk through the seam and when we get to the fence, I go under. But Peeta doesn't.

"Peeta, it's off. Don't worry." I tell him.

"I know, it's just I've never been outside the fence before."

"Peeta, its fine. Trust me. I do this all the time." I assure him. He goes through the fence really slowly. When he's on the other side we start walking into the woods. I stop and get my bow and quiver of arrows out of a hallow tree. I grab a knife from high in the branches and hand it to Peeta.

"So, what do you normally do out here?" He asks.

"I used to only hunt, but lately I just walk around and clear my mind. I know where we can go, Peeta. It's kind of far though, my father used to take me here."

"If you want to, I'm fine with it." I smile and take his hand in mine.

"Let's go." We walk to the lake; it takes about three hours to get to the lake. It might've taken less time if I was alone. But Peeta and I walked slowly through the forest; which seemed extremely alive today. The sun was shining through the trees, mockingjays were whistling and squirrels were out running around from branch to branch. I shoot a few, but my head isn't in the game, so I don't shoot as many as I normally would. We reach the lake, which is in a clearing so the sun is shining on the water. I put my hand in the water and find it pretty warm.

"Want to go swimming?" I ask Peeta.

"I-I don't know how to swim…." He confesses.

"I can teach you, this is wear my father taught me. It's not hard." I tell him.

"Okay." We take off our jackets till we're only wearing our under clothes. I jump in the lake, but Peeta is hesitant.

"At least put your legs in the water Peeta! It's not cold if that's what you're worried about." I swim over to him and he watches me.

"That looks really simple."

"It is, you move your arms and kick. Get in and go to where you can still touch." I tell him. Peeta slowly walks into the water.

"Okay, so just float, move your arms and kick your legs." He tries this, but splashes a lot in his attempt. That's when I remembered his fake leg.

"Here." I place my hand on his stomach and lift him up a little. "Okay, now just kick your legs and move your arms like I was." He starts doing what I tell him too, he looks like he has it under control so I move my hands away and he is swimming on his own. Like a child would, he stopped when he realized what he was doing and splashed his way over to where he could touch.

"Peeta, you're supposed to keep going."

"Yeah, I know." I suck in my breath and swim to him underwater.

"How did you do that?" He asks.

"It's like swimming above water, but you hold your breath." I tell him.

I swim around for about two more hours and Peeta attempts at swimming. He is getting better; he just can't go that far away from where he can touch.

**A/N: This is the quote.** "By late afternoon, I lie my head on Peeta's lap, making a crown of flowers while he fiddles with my hair, claiming he's practicing his knots. After a while, his hands go still. "What?" I ask.

"I wish I could freeze this moment, right here, right now, and live in it forever," he says. **A/N: (Skip a couple of lines because it doesn't go with the plot).**

"Okay."

I can hear the smile in his voice. "Then you'll allow it?"

"I'll allow it," I say.

His fingers go back to my hair and I doze off, but he rouses me to see the sunset. It's a spectacular yellow and orange blaze behind the skyline of the Capitol. "I didn't think you'd want to miss it," he says." (Collins, Catching Fire, 245-246). **A/N: End of quote.**

"It's beautiful, Peeta. Thanks for waking me up."

"No problem."

"It's getting really late, we should be heading back. It's a long walk and my mother will be very worried." Peeta and I put our jackets back on because we were still in our under clothes and start walking back to District 12. We walk faster than we did when we were walking there because it was getting dark, but mainly because Peeta swears he hears a wolf and grabs my hand and starts walking faster.

When we get back to my house it's about midnight and my mom and Prim are asleep. Peeta and I go upstairs. I go to my room and he goes to his.

I change into some pajamas and crawl into bed. I hear footsteps coming closer to my room and then I see Peeta in the dim light.

"Good night, Katniss."

"Peeta?"

"Yes?"

"Stay with me." He smiles and lies down next to me.

"Always."

* * *

**Kind of short. SEND ME IDEAS PEOPLE! Thanks :) Don't forget to review! If you do I'll give you an ice lolly and my friend Jenn Bieber will give you cookies! She loves giving cookies... anyway! I hope you like it :)**


	8. Suprises

**Okayyy... so my new uploading day is Friday. I don't own Hunger Games. I'm not gonna say a ton, it's late and I have to wake up early. **

**CHAPTER 8: SUPRISES:**

Peeta and I are in my kitchen baking today. He insists that I have to learn how to make sugar cookies and how to frost them. We are putting the ingredients into a bowl, there's a knock on the door.

"I'll get it, just crack two more eggs and put them in the bowl." Peeta walks over to the door.

"Wait! No, Peeta-." It's too late. He opens the door to reveal a gaping Gale.

"… Will someone please explain why Mellark isn't dead?" Gale finally says. For the thirst time Peeta explains what happened to him at the capitol.

My mom comes in the room.

"Peeta, I want to check up on you and make sure you didn't get any diseases." My mom says and Peeta and she go upstairs to his room.

"Where's he staying? The baker's wife threw out all of his things." Gale asks.

"He's staying here. All of Panem thinks he's dead and we want it to stay that way."

"Does the Capitol know he's gone?"

"Yeah, when we were leaving the train station alarms started to go off. I don't think they know it's me that took him, that's why he has to stay hidden." Peeta and my mom come down stairs.

"He looks, healthy; except for the fact that he's lost a lot of weight." She says. Peeta sits down next to me and takes my hand in his. The expressions on Gale's face changes. I follow his gaze and see that he is looking at mine and Peeta's intertwined hands.

"I uh… I have to go." Gale gets up and goes out that door. So much for him not being mad about Peeta.

* * *

_**(At the Capitol) President Snow's POV**_

"Where is he?" I scream at Seneca Crane. Peeta is gone. He's been gone for a week.

"We don't know. If the doctors wouldn't have taken out his tracker we would know where he is." Seneca tells me. "Why did you want to keep him down there anyways?"

"Throw him back in the arena; see what the audience and Katniss Everdeen would do. It would make some nice drama around Panem. But now we can't do that because he is gone!"

"Sir, this is just a shot in the dark. But do you think it was Miss. Everdeen that took him? She was here when he went missing." Seneca told me. Well if that is where he is, we can't exactly go get him back, Katniss is a victor and will throw a tantrum.

"Just drop it Seneca. Let the star-crossed lovers be. After what they've been through; they deserve love. Seneca, get someone to send them a letter telling them we will not bug them unless we have to." I stare out the window looking over the city.

"Yes Sir." I hear him walking away. Those two better not cause any trouble, or I will have to wreck their love.

* * *

_**(**__**Back in District 12, two days later.) Katniss' POV**_

Peeta and I have been home for the past two days. He's been painting with the paints Effie sent him; he is also trying to teach me how to bake. But I always end up making a big mess.

"Katniss, you have a letter." My mom tells me and hands it to me. I read on the front of the envelope that it's from the Capitol. I open and find a letter:

_Dear Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark,_

_I know that it was you that has taken Peeta. With careful thought, I have decided to let the both of you live and Peeta can still stay with you. But do not let the public know about Peeta being alive yet. Head game maker, Seneca Crane and I will be the ones to tell Panem. We are going to say he was hiding in a cave and was so injured that he could not move. He almost starved to death and when the arena was being tore down to build a new one, they found him lying in the mud half dead. Just remember, you two don't cause trouble and neither will we._

_Sincerely,_

_President Snow_

"Peeta, they know." I say.

"Know what?" My mother asks.

"The Capitol knows I'm the one that freed Peeta. But they said we can both still live. They're just going to say that they found you in a cave half dead and covered in mud when they were tearing down the arena." I tell them.

"What does that mean?" He asks.

"It means you don't have to be trapped in here." He smiles at this answer.

"I hate being trapped. It sucks." Then our TV flickered on, it was the Capitol symbol. President Snow and Seneca Crane followed the symbol.

"Good Evening Panem! We have extremely important news to tell you." Snow says.

"We all know the star-crossed lovers from District 12, well lover now. But there is something we recently found out. Peeta Mellark is alive!" Seneca says and President Snow nods his head.

"Yes, yes. While a destruction team was working on tearing down the arena. They found Mr. Mellark in a cave. He was half dead and covered in mud." Snow tells the nation.

"He was immediately boarded onto a hovercraft and went to the hospital where they fixed his wounds and fed him. He is now back in District 12 with Katniss Everdeen. So there wasn't just one victor this year, there was two." Seneca says.

"Congratulations Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark!" Snow said.

"We have one more announcement to make. You all probably know that this year is the 3rd quarter quell. So the reaping will be a little different. This year, we will be reaping only 18 year olds. Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor!"

Then the anthem played and the screen went black. I'm speechless, because Gale has a very big chance of going in the arena.

* * *

**PM me names of tributes!**

**Okay, review please. **

**I'm about to fall asleep on my laptop. Good night and may the odds be ever in your favor!**


	9. The Reaping

**A/N: I know that I said in the last chapter I would update every Friday, I couldnt last friday, sorry! I'm really busy, I have Algebra EOC next week, finals the week after. But I get out June 22 then I'll have more time to write! But I'll be at summer camp from July 13-16. And I'm going to the Carribbean in August for 9 days, fun! But I wont be able to update then. **

**I felt bad for not uploading so I made this one really long :)**

**I don't own The Hunger Games, if I did, why would I be in school right now?**

**Did you guys see the MTV awards? I was so mad at Twilight, but happy that Hunger Games stars won a ton of awards :)**

**Okay, you can read now: **

* * *

**CHAPTER 9: THE REAPING:**

Peeta and I are sitting on stage next to Effie. Since the world already knows he's alive and is technically a victor, he'll be mentoring with me. I watch as all the eight- teen year olds walk into the square. It looks like there's about fifty girls and fifty guys. I notice that the bowls have way more slips of paper than 50. These are the oldest siblings, so they have signed up for tesserae many times. I know Gale must have his name in there more than forty times. Effie stands up and does her little model walk over to the microphone.

Peeta leans over and speaks in my ear, "You're shaking, you know that?" I look down to see that my hands are shaking.

"I'm nervous that Gale will be reaped."

"I understand." Effie stands up and model walks over to the microphone. She taps on it twice to silence the crowd.

"Welcome, welcome and happy hunger games!" She started babbling about the Capitol, the rebellion, stuff like that. I zoned out and came back into reality when she called the female tribute's name.

"Delly Cartwright!" Peeta squeezed my hand. Delly and Peeta have been friends forever. I see Delly go up to the stage.

"Now for the boys." Effie says and does her little model walk over to the glass bowl on the other side of the stage. With her manicured nails she reaches into the bowl and slowly digs around for a name. I can feel my heart beating faster. Gale will be reaped, I know it.

"Gale Hawthorne!" Gale can't go in the arena, he has a family to take care of and he's been being stubborn and won't take money from me. I see Gale walking up to the stage. I look out in the audience and see Hazel crying, I feel so bad for her but there's nothing I can do. I have to go to the Capitol.

"Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be even in your favor." Effie smiles at the crowd then turns to take Gale and Delly to their rooms where their families will say their good byes.

"Are you okay?" Peeta asks me.

"I don't know, how about you?"

"I don't know either, but it'll be okay. We're both here and alive so there is no reason why we can't get the both of them out safely." Peeta reassures me.

"I know, but I can't help but worry that something will go wrong." I tell him.

"Don't think like that. We're the ones in control now. Haymitch is gone; he'll probably go rot in his house. We're the ones that send them gifts; we will send them at the right time like Haymitch did for you." Peeta says.

"I guess you're right."

"Girl on fire, time to board the train; you have to be there before your tributes." I hear someone say behind me. Only one person calls me girl on fire. I turn around to see Cinna walking across the stage towards us.

"Cinna, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at the Capitol?" I ask confused.

"District 12 has new stylists and prep teams. Portia and I couldn't handle leaving our favorite victors." I stand to hug him. He's helped me so much the first few months after the games. I'm grateful that he and Portia are our stylists again because it would be too weird with someone else.

"Come on, we need to get you two on the train. Your tributes will be there in about 20 minutes and we need you too to be ready for their arrival." Cinna says and walks us to the train station. We get on and go sit down on the couch in the living compartment.

"I have to see to somethings. I will see you at dinner." Cinna says then walks off. Peeta and I are left to wait for Gale and Delly.

**Gale's POV**

Effie takes me to a peacekeeper who takes me to this small room.

"Get in and wait for your family." He tells me. I walk in and go to the window. I look out and see the square emptying of people. Some luck I have, first my best friend gets reaped. Then she falls in love with baker boy and now I got reaped. I hear the door open; I turn around and am tackled in a hug by my mom and siblings.

"Gale!" My mom says and lets me go.

"Mom, I'll be okay. Katniss is there and she can help me." I reassure her. I look down at Rory and Vick. "I know I said not to take anything from the Everdeen's, but since I can't provide food and Katniss can't either; you have to. If Mrs. Everdeen or Prim offers you something you need to take it and thank them. Understand?" I tell my brothers, they both nod.

"Gale please be smart and strong." Rory says.

"I will don't worry. I'll also try my hardest to bring Delly back too. Hopefully I'll get back and we can be neighbors with Katniss and Prim."

"Peeta too! He's really nice." Vick says, this comment bugs me.

"Oh yeah, sure, Peeta too." I say. Then the peacekeeper comes in.

"Times up, time to go." He says. My mother, Rory, Vick and Posy start to walk out. Posy turns around, runs to me and hugs my legs.

"Good luck, Gale." She says then runs back out to our mom. I sit on the couch that's in here for about five minutes then the peacekeeper comes in.

"Time to go on the train; your mentors are waiting." I stand up and walk out the door and out of the building. I don't wait for the peacekeeper to catch up. I walk straight to the train station and onto the train. I stand a couple feet away from the door way and decide to wait for Delly before I go look for Katniss.

**Delly's POV**

I'm practically shoved into this tiny room that my family is supposed to say good bye to me in. I sit on the couch and cry. I'm terrified, being reaped has always been my greatest fear and now it came true. I hate Effie a little for pulling my name out of the bowl, but she didn't know; and I doubt she cares about the tributes she draws. I look up from my crying when the door opened. My mom and dad came in and sat to my left and right. They both hug me.

"Sweetheart, it'll be fine. You have Gale Hawthorne as your district partner. You two can win." My dad tells me.

"Mrs. Everdeen told me that Gale taught Katniss some of what she knows and Katniss taught Gale some of what she knows. Delly, you are extremely safe." My mom tells me.

"I know that I am safe, the newest victors are my mentors. But it's a quarter quell, what if it's worse than last years? Also there's going to be all 18 year olds, I don't want to take on a career." I tell my parents.

"You'll be with Gale the whole time in the arena. He is like a career."

"Yeah, but-." The peacekeeper cut me off.

"Sorry, time to go." I hug my parents one last time.

"Good luck sweetheart." My mom says and kisses my cheek then walks out the open door.

I sit on the couch crying by myself for about five more minutes, and then the peacekeeper comes back in. I'm not expecting anyone else to come. I know if Peeta wouldn't be mentoring he would've come.

"Time to board the train." He says and motions for me to go with him out the door. We walk out of the building and through the square, which is now empty. When we get to the train station I get on and immediately see Gale.

"How long have you been standing here?" I ask.

"Only about two minutes." He says. "Come on, an attendant told me that Katniss and Peeta and in the living compartment. Let's go talk to them about the games." He says and we walk to where Katniss and Peeta are. After seeing their games I half expected them to be snuggling close to each other. But they are watching the reapings from the other districts. Peeta and Katniss see us and smile.

**Katniss' POV**

Gale and Delly walk in the room. I would say something, but I think Gale and I are still a little rocky. Peeta like normal is the first to speak.

"Hi Delly, Gale." He says.

"Hi." Delly replies quietly.

"What kind of Competition is there this year?" Gale asks. This is a question I can easily answer.

"Lauren and Justin from District 1, they look pretty tough. Alexis and Conner from District 2 look kind of tough, but not as much as District 1. Shelby and Tyler from District 3 look harmless. Courtney and Logan from District 4 look like they're ready to stab you with a trident, watch out for them. Taylor and Stephen from District 5 look like they would make nice allies. Gabriella and Josh from District 6 look tough. Sarah and Corey from District 7 look too nice to hurt anyone, plus Corey looks like someone who doesn't really take things seriously. Ashley and Hunter from District 8 look harmless. Rylee and Tristan from District 9 look weak. Jessica and Marcos from District 10 look tough; they're really big boned looking. Lyndsey and Cameron from District 11 look tough too." I tell them.

"So are most of them tough?" Delly asked. She looked scared.

"Some of them look tough, most look weak. It's hard to tell by a reaping though. They could be acting like I did last year. I tried to act tough and stay together, but on the inside I wanted to start crying; if I did cry, I would've looked weak and in the games, weak is bad unless that's your strategy." I tell Delly and Gale.

"Will we make strategies?" Delly asks.

"Yeah, at the Capitol before you're interview with Caesar, you'll have a two on one meeting with us and we'll figure out your strategy." Peeta tells her. I feel the train start to move and look out the window. We're on our way to the Capitol.

* * *

**My name is Lauren and I'm from District 1, so I wanted to put that in there :) Please review! If you do, I'll PM you and give you Ice lolly's (If you talk to Lauren Hutcherson on Hunger Games Arena, you'll get it.)**

**~~~MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR!~~~**


	10. Sorry Gale

**Chapter 10: Sorry Gale ;)**

**A/N: You guys know how a ton of other authors say that they'll update a ton because school is out? Well that's the opposite for me because I'm never home! Sorry, and when I am home I get distracted by Facebook and Twitter. Maybe you can blame Amelia Earhart for me not updating. She said I have no friends when I saw her at Sky Vacation Bible School**.

_**Follow me on twitter! I'm d1tribute not 1d, d1. I like One Direction but its d1.**_

**I don't think I have anything else to say besides that I don't own The Hunger Games.**

* * *

**Katniss' POV**

Peeta, Gale, Delly and I walk into the dining room and sit down. I see Delly gazing up at the big glass chandelier hanging above the table. She better get used to seeing fancy things because she'll see a lot of it at the Capitol. Some attendants bring in some food and set it down on the buffet tables that area along the walls. Once they leave we all walk over to is and dish up some food. We sit down and eat for a few minutes and Peeta, like normal, is the one to start the conversation.

"Do you two have any questions about the games?" He asks Gale and Delly. Gale just looks down at his plate, probably not wanting to make eye contact with Peeta or me.

"How do you find shelter?" Delly asks. Peeta and I begin to laugh and Delly looks blankly at us, not understanding why this is funny. Gale looks up at us too to see what's so funny.

"What's so funny? It was a legitimate question that I would like to know the answer to as well." Gale asks.

"It's funny because Peeta asked the same thing last year. But when he asked it Haymitch and he started to argue and Peeta ended up with Haymitch's hairy, smelly foot on his chest." I explain to them.

"Then he took a bottle of liquor and went to his room." Peeta finishes.

"Did you two like Haymitch?" Delly asks.

"No, not at all. The only thing he did well is sending us gifts in the arena. Other than that we hated him." I say.

"But he was our mentor and we still go to him for advice. Like when I was found in the arena, he helped us with that." Peeta says. I see Effie walk in out of the corner of my eye.

"Are we going to end up hating you two?" Gale asks then received a stern look from Effie.

"Manners!" She tells him. I laugh a little at this remembering when she told me the same thing when I shoved Peeta backstage after his interview last year.

"Katniss! That is rude, do not laugh." Effie tells me. I try to keep a straight face but I smile a little. Peeta turns a little to look at me, he smiles at me. I stop holding in my laugh and start to laugh. Effie huffs and stalks out the door muttering something about teenagers and poor manners.

"Should we be worried about her?" Delly asks.

"No, not at all. Just give her some time and she'll be fine." I tell her. We eat dinner and just sit there and talk.

"So in the games, are we going to pull a star-crossed lovers act too?" Gale asks. There's that word again, "act" I hate that word. Everyone knows that it was much more than an act. I know Gale knows that, he must be doing this to mess with Peeta. I close my eyes and take a deep breath.

"Gale, it was not an act. I don't know how many times I will have to say this, but it was not an act. You need to understand that."

**Peeta's POV**

"Gale, it was never an act and never will be. I can tell that you love me, but I will never love you more than a friend. Peeta is different; I've told you that before." If I'm correct, Katniss just said that she loves me. "Let's just try to make this trip as quick and painless as we can. You'll go in the arena, both come out alive and we'll go home. No extra drama, the games causes enough as it is." We all sit in an awkward silence for a while then Katniss stands up.

"I'm going to bed, see you all in the morning." She walks to her room and before she goes into the open door she looks back at me a smiles a little, I grin back at her. She walks into her room and shuts the door behind her. Delly stands up, pushing the chair away from the table.

"I'm going to bed too, hopefully sleep some stress away. Good night." Then she walks to her room at the end of the train and leaves Gale and I sitting in an awkward silence. Right now the only think I hear is the sound of the train rolling down the track.

"Why Mellark, why?" Gale says. My first thought is Katniss.

"It's not like I asked for this to happen. I didn't ask to be reaped, which started this whole thing."

"You still didn't have to tell the whole country that you have a crush on my best friend." He says. I stand up and walk over to the window and lean on the wall.

"Why do you care if she was just your best friend, you never made a move; so I took my opportunity." I say to Gale. Gale gets up from his chair and stalks over to the where I am standing. He stops when his face in inches from mine and staring at me straight in the eye.

"You listen to me, Mellark. Stay away from her; I don't care about the star-crossed lovers. I've known her longer so stay away."

"Gale, no matter what you say; I'm not staying away. Anyone can tell that she loves me. She just said that what she feels for me is different. I'm not going anywhere!"

Before I realize what I'm doing my fist makes contact with Gale's jaw. The impact knocks his head upwards and he takes a steep back. He shakes his head in fury then throws a punch at my stomach. I lean up against the wall, the punch had taken the breath out of me a bit. Then I go at Gale and punch him on the face. When I pull my hand away I see blood running down my knuckles. I look up at Gale and see that blood is streaming out of his nose. He looks up at me and I know I'm going to get it. The first time he tries to punch me I duck. He swings his leg around to try to knock me on the floor, he fails and I jump at him making him fall on his back. This is my only chance, I have his arms pinned down on the ground with my legs and I am about to punch him when I start to hear a high pitch voice.

"Peeta Mellark! You get off your tribute right now! That is not acceptable and that is very rude!" I get off of Gale and he stands up.

"Thank you, now both of you go to bed. You have had a long day and you will need to save you energy and fighting for when the games begin. Good night you two! Tomorrow is a big, big, big day!" I walk past Gale and go to my room near the front of the train. I go in the bathroom and wash off the blood. I change into more comfortable clothes and lie down. I didn't realize how tired I was till my head hit the pillow. I was out.

**Gale's POV**

Great, Katniss admits that she will never love me like she does Peeta and now my face is covered in blood from my nose down. Effie walks me down to my room. When I go in I wash the blood off my face and hands in the bathroom. I change into clean clothes because mine have some blood on them. I turn the light off and crash. I can't wait for all of this to be over.

* * *

**A/N:** **I think I made Gale too mean. Peeta just brings out his mean side I guess. Why you gotta be so mean Gale? Again, sorry that I haven't been updating a ton; I really wish I could but Facebook and Twitter distract me! I'm also gone a lot now too. I hadn't done Peeta's POV yet and I thought that this was a good thing to have through his eyes.**

_**Please review!**_


	11. The Capitol

**A/N: Happy Fourth of July! You guys get a present! A new chapter! Yay! How'd you like that little fight in the last chapter? That was my first fight that I wrote. I don't own The Hunger Games!**

* * *

**Chapter 11: The Capitol:**

_**Katniss' POV**_

When I woke up, I already knew this day was going to be bad. We will be arriving at the Capitol and the opening ceremonies will be held tonight. I walk out of my room and down to the dining room. Like always I am the last one up; Peeta, Gale, Delly, Cinna, Portia and Effie are all sitting around the table. I sit down in the empty chair next to Peeta. I look over at Gale and see that he is glaring at someone. I follow his gaze and see that his target is Peeta. Peeta's arms have a few bruises on them. I look back at Gale and see he also has some bruises on his arms and on his face as well.

What happened last night after I went to bed? Knowing Gale it wasn't good.

"So, how did everyone sleep?" Effie asks trying to break the ice.

"I slept well." I answer her, if someone didn't answer her question soon she would get offended.

"I somehow did too." Delly says. Peeta and Gale remain quiet. I hear an echo and look out a window and see stone walls. We must be entering the train station at the capitol.

"We're here? That is not good, we are off schedule, and I did not plan for this to happen." Effie starts mumbling to herself. "Okay, everyone go get ready! There will be camera's so hurry!"

"Katniss, Portia and I laid out clothes for you and Peeta." Cinna says.

"Okay, thank you." I say and go off to my room to change.

Cinna has laid out black jeans, a yellow shirt with orange primroses on it and orange toms. I get dressed and meet Peeta by the doors. He is wearing black jeans, an orange V-neck shirt and orange boat shoes. Great, just like last year they want us to match.

"They're making us match again." I say to Peeta.

"Probably because they liked our fire related clothes last year." He says. "I like it, orange is my favorite color."

"Really? I never knew that; mine's green." I can tell that he's about to say something but he stops and looks behind me. I turn around and see Gale and Delly walking towards us. They're not wearing matching clothes yet since they haven't met their stylists and prep teams.

"They made you two match too?" Delly asks.

"Yeah, Cinna and Portia like us to stick with flames." I tell her.

"Are we going to be set ablaze like you last year?" Gale asks me.

"Yeah, probably; the Capitol really liked our costumes last year so they'll probably do something similar to that for now on." I say.

"Both of you should look out the windows and wave, it looks good." Gale shrugs and walks over to the window followed by Delly and they start to wave.

"You just said that because it looked good when you were waving last year." I tell Peeta.

"Yeah probably." Effie comes over and motions for Gale and Delly to come over to us by the door.

"Come on now, it's time to meet your stylists and prep teams. Katniss and Peeta, you two follow Cinna and Portia up to your pent house." Effie says. The doors open and Gale and Delly are grabbed by two peacekeepers and are taken to where they will be prepped. Cinna, Portia, Peeta and I walk to the elevator and go up to our pent house.

"How do you think they'll take the prepping?" Peeta asks.

"They're going to hate it." I answer him.

"Yeah, probably; Gale won't hate it as much as Delly will."

"Delly is going to hate it so much, I know I did." I say.

"Why did you hate it?" Cinna asks me. I hated it for many reasons, but one reason really stuck out to me.

"Getting waxed, that was horrible."

"Sorry to tell you this, but you'll have to get waxed, come with me." Cinna says. I groan and follow him into my room. I sit down on a chair and my prep team comes in.

"Katniss! We've missed you so much!" Venia says.

"Please keep the conversation to a minimum; we need Katniss ready before her tributes." Cinna says then walks out, leaving me with hearing all about Capitol news for the next hour.

_**Delly's POV**_

I have just been waxed and washed and am exhausted. I'm sitting in a room that looks a lot like the nurse's office at school back in District 12. This man walks in he is wearing a suit and has bright pink hair with a matching tie.

"Hello Delly, I'm your stylist, Matokye." He introduces himself.

"Hello."

"Don't be so shy, we'll see each other a lot these next couple of days. Would you like to see what you are wearing?" He asks.

"Please tell me it's not a coal miner outfit." I tell him. He laughs.

"Don't worry. We'll be taking a different approach on last year's costumes." He says.

"So I'll be in fire?"

"You won't be on fire, you'll be fire. This year the look will be more elaborate and it will look like fire is embedded in the material. What do you think about that?"

"I think we'll steal the show." I say and smile. He hands me my costume.

"Let's get you dressed and out to your chariot."

_**Gale's POV**_

I feel like a girl. I have never been pampered this way before and I feel like a girl from the Capitol. I'm sitting on this cold, white table when someone walks in.

"Who are you" I ask.

"That wasn't very polite; clearly Effie hasn't gotten to you yet. I'm Lalena, your stylist." I relax a little; I've been paranoid since I got here. I hate the Capitol and all these people are monsters that want to watch me fight to the death and watched Katniss fight to the death.

"Sorry, so what are we wearing this year?" I ask.

"Fire again, but it's different. Matokye, Delly's stylist and I spent a lot of time watching fire, this year it will look a lot more real." She answers.

"Sweet." I reply to her. She hands me a stack of black clothing.

"Better get changed so you can meet Delly at your chariot."

_**Peeta's POV**_

I knock on Katniss' door. She's been in there about an hour with her prep team. I got prepped too, but it only took about 20 minutes.

"Katniss, Effie wants us down by the chariots before Delly and Gale takes off."

"We're almost done Peeta!" Octavia says through the door. I'm wearing the same thing that I was earlier, so I'm assuming Katniss is too. I few minutes later Katniss walks out, looking exhausted.

"You were in there for an hour, what did they do besides your makeup?" I ask her, I feel bad for her. She hates this kind of stuff and to have to be sitting in there doing nothing while they prep her must kill her. She doesn't say anything, she grabs my hand runs it across her arm. Smooth, they waxed her, just like she said she hated. No wonder she looks like she wants to shoot someone with an arrow.

"Oh, let's get down to the chariots." We go down the elevator, Katniss still holding my hand and we walk down to where the chariots are waiting to leave. Delly and Gale are at the back of the line. They are wearing black jumpsuits similar to what we wore last year. When we reach them District 1's chariot is just about to leave so we don't have much time to talk.

"Good luck guys, don't forget to smile and wave, the crowd loves it." Katniss tells them.

"Hold hands too, they do crazy if you do that." I add in. We fast walk to where the mentors sit, in a balcony to the left of where the tributes come out. We sat down right as the District 4 chariot was rolling out. When 12's chariot came out, the crowd went crazy. I'm pretty sure it was louder last year though. The looked like the coals inside a fire. Like Katniss and I, when they stopped, so did their fire.

"Welcome tributes! To the 75th annual hunger games, the 3rd quarter quell. We appreciate your courage and sacrifice. And wish you the best of luck. Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor!" After President Snow said that, the chariots rolled away. I hate President Snow; he locked me in his basement, and kept me away from my family and Katniss.

"I'll kill him someday." I hear Katniss mutter.

"I'm fine with that, please, it will be the best for the whole country." I tell her.

"I can't wait for the day I can pierce and arrow through his cold heart." She says.

"President Snow doesn't have a heart. He's inhumane, he forces kids to fight to the death on TV for entertainment and locked me in his basement." All the other mentors are gone so they can't hear us talking bad about the President, if they were here Katniss and I would be in big trouble.

"Come on, we need to get to Delly and Gale or Effie will get mad about our tardiness." Katniss and I walk to where the chariots are being kept; we find Delly and Gale talking to Effie.

"Ah, there are your _late_ mentors." Effie says and emphasizes the word late.

"Sorry Effie, we were talking." I tell her.

"Come on; let's go up to the pent house."

We walk past the other tributes, they are all staring and Katniss and I, probably because of our performance last year also that we are the newest mentors. I hear them whispering things about, fire, star-crossed lovers, me being found in wreckage. Effie, Katniss, Delly, Gale and I go up an all glass elevator to the pent house. Delly and Gale are in aw the whole way up and when we get there.

"We'll see you guys at dinner; let's go to the roof Katniss." I say and take Katniss' hand and we head up to the roof.

* * *

**A/N: Please review! They made it easier. Now you just have to type down in that box :)**


	12. The Pin

**OMG! I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in... a month... SHAME ON ME! It's summer... I like to be lazy. Even when I was writing finishing this, I had to force myself to stay on the word document and not go on Facebook and Twitter. I has summer camp, I went to the ocean for a couple days... I've been watching Olympics! TEAM USA! Okay, I've kept you waiting long enough, here you go!**

**Disclamer:**

**I do not own The Hunger Games... (starts bawling) see what you guys made me do? I own nothing... I guess I own Matokye and Lalena... but still...**

**I'm gonna shut up now.**

* * *

**Chapter 12: The Pin:**

**Katniss' POV**

Peeta takes me up the staircase that leads up to the roof. He opens the door for me and steps aside. I walk in and immediately smell the scent of flowers. Peeta picks a yellow primrose and puts it in my hair.

"Beautiful." He says and smiles at me, I smile back. I walk over to the edge, Peeta follows me. It's not hard to spot the Capitol citizens. They are wearing bright colors and look like neon ants. Something catches my eye though. On the street directly below me, I see a golden shaped engraved into the sidewalk. I think Peeta notices it too.

"Do you see that?" He asks.

"Yeah, let's go check it out." I say and we go down the stairs and down the elevator. We walk out of the building and turn to the left and search the sidewalk for it. I see it.

"Peeta, that's my mockingjay pin. Why would someone put it on the sidewalk of the Capitol?" I saw.

"I don't know; let's go see if there's more." Peeta and I start to walk along the side walk.

"Let's count how many we see." I suggest. We walk 10 blocks and see 10 mockingjays.

"So there must be one on every street of the Capitol." Peeta says.

"Yeah, but why my pin though?" I ask, I sigh. "Haymitch would probably know…"

"Should we go back to the pent house and call him?" A/N: In here, Haymitch didn't tear his phone out of the wall.

"Yeah, let's go back."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PAGE BREAK ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Has he picked up yet?" I ask Peeta impatiently.

"No, not yet. It's still ringing, oh wait no, he answered."

"Put it on speaker!" I tell him and he nods his head and pushes a button on the phone.

"I knew you two would call eventually." Haymitch says.

"Whatever Haymitch." I'm already annoyed with him.

"What do you need, Sweetheart?" Haymitch asks.

"Haymitch, we were walking around the Capitol today and we noticed on every block there is a small golden mockingjay pin engraved into the concrete, do you know what it means?"

"Wow, you two are clueless. You know how District 13 rebelled against the Capitol?"

"Yeah, but what does that-." He cuts me off.

"The rebellion is starting again. And you two ignited it."

"What do you mean? What did we do?" I ask.

"Well somehow the other districts found out the Capitol's lie about how Peeta got back. That's what sparked it."

"Has anything bad happened yet?" Peeta asks.

"No, not really; just an uprising in District 8." Haymitch tells us.

There was a knock on the door.

"Katniss? Peeta? The head game-maker, Plutarch Heavensbee would like to talk to you two." Effie tells us.

"Haymitch we have to go." I say into the phone.

"I heard, sweetheart. I forgot to say, good luck with your tributes you two."

"Thanks Haymitch. Bye." Peeta says and pushes the end button on the phone. I open the door and see Effie tapping her foot with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Come on you two, Plutarch is not the kind of man to keep waiting. He has the Hunger Games to plan and put into action." She leads us out of the building. There is a Capitol service car waiting outside. We all get in the back seat with me sitting in the middle. The driver stops in front of a glass building and we all get out. Effie leads us to what looks like a waiting room.

"He told me over the phone that this will be about a half an hour, so I will be back then to bring you back to the training center." Effie says then walks away leaving Peeta and I to do nothing but sit down and wait for the jerk that has planned how Gale and Delly are supposed to die, or in this case, almost die because I will get them out of the arena. A large man comes out of the door talking to a lady that looks like his secretary. He sees us waiting and immediately turns to us and we stand.

"Ah, hello Miss Katniss Everdeen, it's nice to see you again!" Plutarch says to me. That's right; I danced with him during the victory tour. Peeta looked at me questionly, I have him a look that said I'll tell you about it later. I smile at Plutarch.

"It's nice to see you again too!" I lie.

"It's nice to meet you Peeta; I've heard all about you. Now both of you come with me." We walk into a big office with book shelves covering the walls; one wall was entirely glass and looked down into where the opening ceremony will be held. There's a desk about five feet away from the window; Plutarch sits down in the chair behind it and gestures for us to sit down in the two chairs sitting in front of it.

"You two know what the rebellion is, correct?" Peeta and I both nod our heads.

"Good, because it's starting and I need your help." He tells us.

"You want us to fight off the rebels? Peeta asks, Plutarch shakes his head.

"No, the exact opposite; I need you two to fight with the rebels. You see, I am one of the rebel leaders. That is why I became head game-maker, to get in on the Capitol's Hunger Games secrets."

"But, we can't just stop being mentors, go to District 8 and help them." I tell him.

"How did you know about District 8?" He asks me.

"Haymitch… he told us about the uprising that's going on." I answer him.

"Well he is correct, there is an uprising. And sadly you and I can't do anything about it until the Hunger Games is over. Once it is over we will go to District 13, the rebel headquarters." This shocks both Peeta and I, there is no District 13, they got bombed and everyone there was killed.

"Plutarch, what do you mean? I thought there wasn't a 13th district anymore." Peeta says. Plutarch stands up and begins to pace the room. We turn our chairs around to look at him.

"That's what the Capitol intended. But District 13 is still very much alive." He says. "They are just hidden under ground."

"Ok, so what's the plan for when the games is over?" I ask.

"You really want to do this?" Peeta asks me.

"Yes, this needs to end soon. The Capitol is inhumane and needs to be taken down."

"That is what we all think in District 13. We're going to District 12 to get your families, then to 13, to train, strategize and wait for the moment to attack." Plutarch says. He looks over at his desk.

"It's been about a half an hour. You should go out in the waiting room, Effie does not like to be late. I will meet you two before you go back to District 12." Peeta and I walk to the door and see Effie walking into the waiting room.

"Good, we're on time. It's time for dinner with Delly and Gale." She says.

The ride back to the training center is silent. Peeta and I need to talk about this, but I don't know where. The whole Capitol has security tapes, except for Plutarch's office apparently. We have to find a place to talk about this.

We go up to the pent house and into the dining room. Cinna, Portia, Gale, Delly, and their stylists Matokye and Lalena were already sitting down, being served by some avoxs, one of which was the red headed girl. I wonder if Gale recognized her. We ate in silence for a few minutes until I think Gale couldn't handle it anymore. He stood up, grabbed my arm and steered me out of everyone's earshot.

"Is that the girl from the woods?" He asks me.

"Yes, but don't say anything else about it. We could get arrested for being in the woods." I answer him.

"Ok, so that's what happened to her…" he says. I nod in agreement.

"Yeah, I found out last year… almost blew it when I started questioning who she is."

"Nice going Catnip." He whispers in my ear while walking past me. I go back to the table and sit back down next to Peeta.

"That was a stunning performance today you two." Effie tells Gale and Delly.

"Thanks." Delly says and smiles.

"What are we going to do now?" Gale asks.

"Train." Peeta says obviously. Clearing Peeta and Gale still hate each other.

"Yes, you will be training for everyday until you enter the arena. So you two really must sleep a lot." Effie says.

"You get very little sleep in the arena, if you're lucky you get four hours. You need to kind of… stock up on sleep." I tell them.

"But first, let's watch the re-run of the opening ceremony." Lalena says. We all go to the room that held the TV and sat down and watched them. I didn't watch them though. I stared out the window and thought about the rebellion and District 13. This whole time, 13 was just hiding while the rest of the country was suffering under the Capitol's hand. Children were getting murdered and they didn't do anything to help us. They have more weapons than the other districts, they make nuclear weapons, which they should have been using against the Capitol. I was mad and excited about this. If we win this war, Prim could have a childhood that I never had. Everyone could live peacefully instead of being ruled and bossed around by the Capitol. No Districts, one big nation. No fences to keep us caged up like animals.

I awaken from my day dream when Peeta kisses me. **A/N: I'm pretty sure that's their first kiss in my story... idk.**

"Katniss, are you ok? You haven't moved in an hour." I look around and see that the TV is off and we're the only ones in the room.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking about what happened earlier." I tell him.

"Yeah, we'll talk about it later. It's really late and we don't want Effie nagging us tomorrow morning." Peeta says.

"Okay. Good night." I stand up and give him a quick hug. Then walk to my room. When I close the door I realize that I'm really tired. I decide to not bother changing. I lie down and immediately fall asleep.

* * *

**Love it? Hate it? I don't really like it... no flames please... I tried... **

**If you read this, review and say who you are rooting for in the Olympics? TEAM USA! **

**Please review... I will love you forever and ever... you can have this cookie! (::) I love opening my email and seeing tons of emails from fanfic.**

_**PWETTY PWEASE REVIEW**_


	13. Training

**Last day of Olympics... *tear* oh well. One Direction is performing so I'm good :) **

**I do not own The Hunger Games... sadly :(**

* * *

**Chapter 13: Training:**

**Delly's POV**

Katniss and Peeta just dropped Gale and me off at the training center and we are waiting for the other tributes to get here. There are about six other people in the room and two others just walked in. There are different stations posted around the room for hand to hand combat, archery, fire-making, plant identification and so on. Katniss and Peeta told us to do things that weren't our strongest, to surprise everyone in the arena. I used to play darts with my dad, so I think I'd be pretty good at throwing knifes, so I'll stay away from that station. Gale will probably stay away from the archery.

I think I will go to the camouflage station, I've seen Peeta decorate cakes in his family's bakery and it doesn't look too hard, that's also how he survived last year.

"What station are you going to first, Gale?" I ask him.

"I'm going to the plants station, how about you?" He says.

"I'm going to camouflage." I tell him. He nods his head.

A few minutes later everyone is here. A lady comes out of the gamemaker's area.

"Tributes! Welcome to the training area, here you will learn in the arts of survival and train to fight to the death. There are multiple stations set up around the room. Each one has a skill you will need to have a better chance of winning in the arena. While you train, game makers will be observing you from a balcony. Please no fighting with your fellow tributes. For hand to hand combat we have trained fighters. If you are caught fighting, you will be taken back to your room by a peace keeper. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor." She walks out of the room; leaving us to wander off to our stations.

I've always been good with a paintbrush; Peeta and I were in the same art class at school. I started to paint leaves on my arm. I use natural materials, like mud and mix it with berries and such to make it look more lifelike. After about two hours, my arm looks like a leaf pile; I smile at my work. I hear a bell ring.

"Tributes!" That lady is back out. "Your training time for today is over, please return to your level." Gale walks over to me.

"Come on Delly; let's go up to the pent house." He looks down at my arm. "That's incredible! It looks so life like."

"Thanks, I guess I learned a thing or two from watching Peeta frost cakes." I tell him. We walk out of the training area and ride an elevator up to the pent house. Katniss and Peeta are waiting for us by the elevator.

"How did it go?" Katniss asks.

"It went well!" I tell her. I see that Peeta notices my arm, which still looks like the top of a tree. He takes my hand and lifts up my arm.

"Delly… this is incredible! I had no idea you could paint this well!" He says.

"I guess I learned somethings from you." I say to Peeta.

"Delly, Gale? Is that you?" Effie walks around the corner. "How did things go on your first training day?"

"I learned somethings about plants." Gale says.

"I became a plant." I lift my arm and show Effie.

"That's lovely dear! Come! We have lunch ready for you."

* * *

**That was short... sorry. It'll get better once the games starts, I have ideas for it. **

_**Please**_** Review!**


	14. Fighting

**Hey guys! So sorry that I haven't updated in a long time. I was on a missions trip in another country... Dominican Republic... That was a very adventurous trip. I was in a hurricane, I got stranded two hours away from my hotel, I got sick, missed my flight back home... it was great. Oh well, I'm safe, at home and not sick anymore. I'll shut up so you can read now.**

**I don't own Hunger Games!**

* * *

**Chapter 14: Fighting:**

**Gale's POV**

The first day of training went by fast, which is not a good thing. I want all the Capitol training I can get, those careers have an advantage over me that I don't like. Right now, I'm at the hand to hand combat station beating the crap out of this trainer.

"Okay 12, get out of there. It's my turn." I turn around to face Justin, the guy from District 1. I turn back around and start fighting again.

"Hey! I said get out of there! It's not like you're going to beat me in the arena, it was lucky that your mentors beat Cato last year. 12 is little dinky district, I bet you don't even know how to set up a decent snare." I'm furious right now; I switch from wailing on the trainer, to wailing on Justin. He puts his arm up in defense and I start punching his face and chest. He realizes what's going on, probably figured out that he was getting beat up by someone from a smaller district. He starts to punch back. I'm about to knock the wind out of him when I'm grabbed from behind. There's a peace keeper holding both or my arms, same for Justin.

"No fighting allowed until the arena. Back to your rooms!" One of peacekeepers that are holding me says. They start to drag us to our rooms, right before we go out into separate hallways, I hear Justin yell,

"Just wait for the arena, 12! You are so dead!" The door slides shut and I'm being dragged down the hallway. The peacekeepers accompany me in the elevator; when we get to the top they shove me out.

"No more funny business." He says then pushes to button for the doors to close.

"Whatever." I grumble. I've always hated peacekeepers, now I hate them even more.

"Gale? What are you doing back so soon? And where's Delly?" Katniss walks over to me.

"She's at the training center." I tell her.

"Okay, that answers one question, why are you back so soon?" She asks again.

"I got kicked out for the rest of the day; I got in a fight with that tribute from District 1, Justin. He got kicked out too." I answer her.

"Nice; Gale, you do realize that you have to fight to the death in a few days, right?" She says.

"Yes, it's not like I wanted to get kicked out. I wanted all the time that I could get to train and get rid of that advantage the careers have. In there, my instincts just kicked in. If something like that in the arena happens, that'll be Justin's canon, not mine." I tell her.

"I get that Gale… Just, go rest. I think you need it." She says then walks away. I really do need it. I couldn't sleep last night, or on the train. I walk into my room, face plant on my bed and crash.

**Delly's POV**

I decide to take a shot at archery; since Justin got kicked out the careers have decided to take over at the camouflage station and started painting each other.

I grab a bow and notch an arrow; I look at the target, which is human shaped. That's lovely. I pull my arm back till my hand is touching my cheek and take aim then let go. I missed; my arrow went to the top left corner of the board, nowhere near the bull's eye. I grab another arrow, this time, aiming it a little lower and to the right. This time it was a little to the left of the circle, I still hit the target though.

Now that I figured out how to aim, I feel pretty confident that I can hit it. I take the last arrow and get it ready to fly. I pull back on the string, aim and let go. Instead of hitting the target, it hit a bar up in the rafters, bounced off and started flying straight at the game makers. Instead of hitting this one guy on the head, it stopped in mid-air and fell on the floor. There was a ripple where the arrow just hit, a force field. The game makers looked startled then relieved to see that they were fine. They look over at me and I smile at them. I put the bow back and leave; it's time for everyone to go back up anyways.

When I get up to the pent house everyone is gone, they must be in their rooms sleeping. I go into my room and clean up a little before it's time to sit down and eat with everyone else.

About thirty minutes later I walk out and sit down at the table, Matokye is sitting there talking on his cell phone; he smiles at me and I smile back. Peeta and Katniss walk over to the table and sit down beside me. Gale is slowly walking over.

"How did training go today?" Peeta asks.

"Pretty well, I tried out archery. That was… somewhat okay." I tell him.

"What happened?" Katniss asks.

"I missed the target by a lot. It bounced off the rafters and at the game makers."

"They must've had deja vu from me." Katniss says.

"Why do you say that?" I ask her.

"I shot an arrow at their apple during my solo session. I got mad because they wouldn't watch me." She says.

"Oh, that makes sense why there's a force field up." I tell her.

"They have a force field up now? That's funny." Peeta says.

"They don't want any other Katniss Everdeen's nearly taking their heads off." Gale says, what's with him? He gets kicked out for the day and he gets all cranky.

"You two need to remember that you only have one more day of group training left. You need to use your time wisely." Peeta says.

"Don't even say anything, I know I screwed up and I shouldn't have got in a fight. I know saying that was meant for me. I get it you don't have to remind me a million times." Gale sighs. "I'm going to eat in my room, not in the mood to talk." He gets up and walks into his room, slamming the door a little.

"Did something else happen besides the fight?" Katniss asks.

"No, I don't know what his problem is." I tell them.

"That's okay, Delly." Peeta says.

"His problem is that he doesn't like to get showed up." Katniss mumbles.

"That seems believable." Peeta says and Katniss looks at him. "Well it's true."

"Ok, let's just brush that aside and focus on the days to come. Those are the more important ones." Katniss says.

* * *

**Ok, now it's your turn to write! Woo! Please review!**


	15. Interview Time

**Hello again :) Sorry that I'm really slow at updating. I'll get better once the games start.**

**I don't own The Hunger Games... sadly :( If I did my dream of meeting Josh Hutcherson would be reality. I've only seen him at a mall tour, which is pretty close. **

* * *

**C****hapter 15: Interview Time:**

**Delly's POV**

"I'd like to welcome to the stage, Delly Cartwright of District 12!" Caesar says and I walk onto the stage, being careful to not step on my orange silky dress that reaches the floor. I look out to the crowd; it reaches as far as my eye can see. Caesar takes my hand and we sit down in circular white chairs.

"So Delly, how do you like the Capitol?" He asks.

"It's really nice. It's much different than home." I tell him.

"What do you like the most?" He asks me.

"Probably the view from my room, it over-looks the Capitol and is beautiful."

"That's lovely." Caesar says with a smile. "Now tell me, are you confident and ready to go into the arena?"

"With the training that I've gotten and having such great mentors I think that I'm ready to do this." I tell the entire country.

"Do you think that having new; young mentors will give you an advantage?" He asks.

"I don't think that it gives me much of an advantage, the other mentors have more experience. I'm not meaning go against Katniss and Peeta. I'm really glad that I have them as mentors instead of Haymitch." I hear a buzzer go off.

"Well, that's all the time we have. Thank you and good luck to you, Miss Cartwright." He says and kisses my hand. I nod and walk back stage, giving the crowd one last smile. Katniss, Peeta and Effie walk towards me.

"That was lovely!" Effie says. I thank her. We go over to a flat screen TV that is hanging on the wall and start to watch Gale's interview.

"Welcome, Gale Hawthorne." Caesar says.

"Thanks, Caesar." He says.

"Knowing Gale, he's going to get angry and Caesar and the other Capitol citizens watching him and storm back here." Katniss says.

"So Gale, how do you like the Capitol?"

"I'm not too sure. I have mixed feelings about it." He answers Caesar.

"Why is that?" Caesar asks Gale.

"Well, when you live in a District where you're starving and people are struggling to live every day because they have so little food and no money. And then you come here and see how much food is wasted and thrown away. I think they should be sending it off to the poorer Districts so they won't be dying of starvation… So yeah, I have mixed feelings about this place." He huffs. Caesar looks stunned. I look at Peeta and Katniss. Katniss had a look on her face that said 'I-told-you-so' Peeta just looked as stunned as Caesar.

"Well… That's an interesting thought to put out there. Thank you for your idea, I'm sure that the Capitol officials will take that into consideration." Caesar says.

"No problem." Gale says.

"You seem like a very caring man." Caesar says. Gale is about to speak when the buzzer goes off. "Ah, seems live we've run out of time. Thank you, Gale Hawthorne!" The audience applauses and Gale walks out of view on the TV. We see him enter back stage to our left and Katniss walks straight up to him and smacks him on the arm.

"You almost blew it Gale! Good thing Caesar is really good at making the tributes looking good or you would've started something. Just so you know, by saying that the game makers are going to take it out on you in the arena." She says.

"I don't care. It just happened, okay? Once I started talking about it, I just couldn't stop." He says.

"Okay, let's just drop this and get upstairs." Peeta says.

"We have a big, big, big day tomorrow!" Effie says, and she's right. Tomorrow we are sent into the arena.

* * *

**I have a question for you guys...**

**How many times have you watched Hunger Games? I've seen it 9 times and I could watch it again right now if I wanted. I have it on my iPod :)**

**Review and tell me how many times you've seen it! I'm really curious to know how many times other fans have seen it.**

**~XxWonderStruckTSxX**


	16. The Arena

**A/N: I don't even know where to start... Sorry I haven't updated in 4 months, I really, truly am. I kept thinking about my readers... but school keeps butting into the things I want to do. Once the Catching Fire trailers comes out and more pictures on tumblr I will probably start fangirling and will write a lot more. I'm not giving up on this, I really hate when people abandon their stories, I won't do that. Thanks so much for waiting. If you forgot about me I don't really care, thanks if you didn't.**

**Love, **

**XxWonderStruckTSxX**

* * *

Chapter 16: The Arena:

Gale's POV

I just stepped into the plastic tube, I don't really know what it is for sure, but this has to be one of the weirdest things that I've been in. I turn around and see that there's now a plastic door separating Lalena and I. She nods at me and as if it was timed, I start to rise when she nods. I'm wearing a black and orange coat and tan pants. My outfit is similar to what Katniss and Peeta wore last year, but mine is a lot larger and puffier. I have black water proof boots on my feet, what kind of arena is this going to be if we have to wear this?

My question is answered right after I get through the blinding light.

I was just lifted into President Snow's freezer. It looks like District 12 during the winter; there's snow everywhere. I see some snow fall off the trees in the distance and immediately knew that it was some type of animal. Good, I'll have food taken care of, and you can eat snow for water. Two main surviving components are taken care of, what I'm worried the most is at nights. It's going to get freezing cold. I look around and try to see Delly. I don't see her so assume that she is on the other side of the cornucopia where I can't see.

There are backpacks, knives and bags that I think have food in them. There's a bow and some arrows in the mouth of the cornucopia. I really want to get that, but I could take the chance of getting killed in the blood bath.

3. Here we go. 2. 1.

Without thinking I bolt off towards the bow. I don't stop sprinting. I grab the bow and arrows, plus a backpack that hopefully had some good supplies in it and book it away from all the action. I see Delly standing a few feet away from what must've been her pedestal. She looks terror-struck. I run over to her and grab her wrist.

"Come on Delly! We have to get out of here now!" The second after I pull her off her pedestal a knife wizzes past right where her head would have been. We take off running towards the deep woods, where hopefully it will be hard for the other tributes to track us. But the only problem was that the snow had to be at least a foot deep in some places and made it really hard to run away from your crazy murderers that are out to kill you.

Delly and I tried our hardest to run as fast as we could without slipping too many times. I think we stopped after about a mile. I take off my backpack and unzip it. Rope, a really thin sleeping bag, a small ball of twine that looks like fishing line, a package of crackers, 10 matches, an empty water bottle and a knife. I take the knife and hand it to Delly, who was weaponless.

"Take this."

"Thank you. Do you think we should keep going?" She asks.

"Let's catch our breath and make our way up this mountain, it's small and I think we are close to the top. We can make camp up there, and because it is at the top it will be harder for people to sneak attack us." I take in my surroundings. This is the first time that I really see what the arena is like, before all I cared about was getting away from the other tributes. It looks like the forest outside of the District 12 limits, but snowier. There's animal tracks in the snow, looks like rabbit and deer. Fast prey, but once I get ahold of it we will have good food to eat.

"Hey, I have an idea." Delly walks over to the closest tree and carefully cuts off a piece of bark with the knife. "Can I see that twine?" I hand the ball of twine over to her. I have no idea what she is planning to do. The piece of wood looks to be about a foot long and half a foot wide. She cuts off a long piece of twine using her teeth, then drops the piece of bark on the ground and steps on it. She puts the twine under the bark and ties it over her shoe.

"Make shift snow boots!" She smiles up at me.

"That is extremely clever." She hands the knife to me, offering me to make myself a pair. I accept this and we spend the next 20 minutes making "snow boots."

"I really think that we should try heading up the mountain now, Gale." Delly says. "We gave the other tributes some time to catch up with us by stopping for so long." I know she's right. We start walking; the snow boots are helping, until we get to steep hills.

"Woah!" I hear Delly yell. I look over my shoulder and see that she slide down the mountain side a couple of feet. "Gale, I'm not so sure these are working very well on slanted surfaces. Right now they are working more like sleds than snow boots." We both take them off and we end up going up the mountain at a faster pace than we would have with the pieces of bark.

Once we reach the top I hear a cannon go off. I'm thinking, "good, one less person to deal with," but I'm also thinking of that tributes family who is probably sobbing over their child's death. I am extremely grateful that Katniss did not die in the arena; one more death in the Everdeen family would not be good. Sometimes, I really wish that Peeta was still gone. I don't have time to stress about that right now because I am in a closed off area with people that are dying to kill me.

Delly is the one that brings me back to normal.

"Gale, I think we should make some sort of shelter. It looks like it's starting to get dark." I look up and see that she is right, the sun is going down and the moon is coming up.

"Okay, I think we should make some sort of camouflaged lean-to against the mountain. So we'll need branches and leaves, lots of them." We work together and chop off some branches with the knife, trying not to bring too much attention to ourselves. When we are finished we have a nice lean-to that is covered in leaves and snow. Delly also lays down some leaves inside it to help keep in heat. I grab out the sleeping bag from my backpack and throw it in there.

The sun sets and we hear the anthem play, and the faces of the first tributes to die in the 75th annual hunger games light up the pitch black night sky. All I have to say about this is, may the odds be ever in our favor.

* * *

**Please review. This literly took me 4 month to write. See ya when I see ya :) **

**And always remember, every revolution beings with a spark ;)**


End file.
